(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Canada Emergency Student Benefit

$9B benefit to help post-secondary students during pandemic: Trudeau

Apr 22, 2020 | 10:16 AM

Students at Red Deer College and Red Deerians who attend school elsewhere will soon be getting help from the federal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that post-secondary students will be eligible for $1,250 per month from May to August via the new Canada Emergency Student Benefit.

That will rise to $1,750 for any student who is taking care of someone else or who has a disability.

Students currently in school, those who graduated in December 2019 or those who were to start in September 2020 will be eligible. Any student who currently has a job but is making less than $1,000 per month will also be eligible.

“The Canada Emergency Student Benefit is to provide immediate help,” Trudeau said.

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“What you’re going through matters. We want to make sure you’ll be OK.”

The coverage period will begin on May 1.

Trudeau also announced the government will create 76,000 jobs for young people, separate from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

“For student researchers and graduate students, we’re going to invest over $291 million to extend scholarships, fellowships and grants to make sure you can keep working. Depending on your funding, it will be extended by either three or four months,” Trudeau said.

The creation of the Canada Student Service Grant was also announced by the prime minister. Students helping in the fight against COVID-19 this summer will soon be eligible for between $1,000 and $5,000, depending on hours worked, through the grant.

While some students qualified for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, others did not.

Brittany Lausen, president of the Red Deer College Student’s Association, says the announcement is amazing.

“Students have so many concerns and uncertainties surrounding their future right now and this announcement helps give some relief,” says Lausen. “I know that many students didn’t qualify for CERB or EI because they weren’t working during the school year or other reasons, and this announcement gives those students some help as well.”

However, even with this help, Lausen acknowledges there will continue to be many concerns for students, such as their ability to pay rent and even school in the fall.

“Before classes finished, students were worried about their grades and the transition to online learning,” adds Lausen. “Now students are looking ahead to May 1 rent, how they are going to buy groceries, their summer job that might not happen, and how they are going to afford tuition and cost of living in the fall. There is a lot of uncertainty right now and this announcement gives students a little bit of relief.”

Lausen encourages RDC students to ask for help if they need.

“Red Deer College and the Students’ Association have resources available to students such as the Red Deer College Emergency Bursary Fund and the Students’ Association Food Bank,” she explains. “Both have been extremely busy over the past month and some. That shows me that students are hurting right now, and we are thankful that government is responding.”